Publications

An Online Course to Pass the OQLF French Exam

Two Dawson French teachers (Chantale Giguère and Laurent Duval) have developed a new online course called A Tutorial for the OQLF French Exam - Health Sector Students and Professionals. This 45-hour fully online course specifically designed for health sector is now offered by Dawson’s Center of Training and Development (CTD). The students are pharmacists, nurses, doctors, x-ray technicians or students in the health sector who want to improve their French competencies to work in the Quebec health system.

Our motivation from the start was to help health professionals who need to pass the Office québécois de la Langue française (OQLF) French Exam. On one hand, these learners need some schedule flexibility since they are full-time workers who often work on shifts; on the other, we didn’t want to leave them alone with just online material to learn by themselves. The challenge was to offer them flexibility combined with personalized feedback and strategies to increase their chances of passing the exam.

A Course Structure to Meet Student Needs

Therefore we targeted all four linguistic skills which represent the OQLF exam’s four components: reading, writing, listening and speaking. Often, students who take French at the basic French level in cegeps, find that their French is not adequate for the OQLF exam. They need help to improve their level.

When it is time to explain in French what they did the day before at work in an English hospital or clinic, they don’t necessarily have the vocabulary or the fluency to communicate efficiently. So the course really focuses on the specific health vocabulary that allows them to talk about their job.

Testing to Fine Tune

Last spring we ran a pilot course (a shorter version of five weeks) with a small group to test the course format, a mix of synchronous and asynchronous activities. The teacher, Nathalie Maguérès, did a great job making sure every student would participate actively in the course. Overall, participants were happy with this very interactive and cooperative online course and thought the course’s main objective, helping with health vocabulary in French, had been reached. This positive feedback motivated us to launch a full 45 hour version of the course for this fall.

Features for Online Success

Conversation is an important and difficult component of the OQLF and it requires real interaction. That is why, once a week, we have an online session on a videoconferencing platform called VIA. We chose that platform for many reasons such as that all the buttons are in French, the target language of the course, and the technical support is bilingual and very efficient. This platform also allows us to record the class, so if students/working professionals cannot attend a lesson, they can watch it afterwards. Although we prefer that they actively participate in the course, watching the recording is better than missing a class.

Between live classes, we make students work on asynchronous activities, which can be done whenever they want. Our material is available mainly on our Moodle page which is available 24/7, providing access to all course content. It includes reading exercises in their field, writing exercises in a wiki, etc. We have also built some asynchronous communication activities and we sometimes use some external resources like a video from the CCDMD resource La piqûre du français that is particularly effective.

The Moodle Home Page for the Online Course

With this online class, we wanted to ensure strong pedagogical support for students. So during and outside the scheduled synchronous portion of the course, they have access to online support from their teacher who gives them feedback on their own progress every week.

Conclusion

In addition to the online OQLF course, CTD offers also a regular in-class OQLF course each semester. But using information technology in the online course now allows busy professionals who most need to pass the OQLF exam to get the help they need at a convenient and flexible pace. This new online course offered by Dawson’s CTD, is a non-credit course, which means that participants don’t need to register in a program at Dawson to be part of the course. The next online class will take place from January 22nd to April 30th 2015.

What a great course! I'm really impressed with Dawson's online course offerings. I know how hard you're working, Chantale and Laurent, on making amazing online classes and I'm excited to learn more about this class! Congrats!

Considering the levels (1-5) of conversational French offered through Dawson, what level of competency do you feel is needed in order to benefit from this more specific training for the test? I'm trying to determine how much I need to bolster my basic french skills before enrolling in your OQLF prep course.

Hello Azam,
Yes you can contact CTD Dawson to registre for the next course. We offer it 3 times a year. The next one will take place in January 2018. Thank you for your interest and good luck with your exam.

Resources published by EDUQ.info

Your Collegial Network Resources

ACPQ

The ACPQ (Association des collèges privés du Québec) is an umbrella organization for 25 college-level teaching establishments subsidized by MESRST. The ACPQ brings together teachers, administrators, and personnel of member colleges for pedagogical workshops that it organizes annually. It also manages support programs for research and international activities.

APOP

APOP meets the professional development needs of teaching personnel by offering online professional development and moderation activities. The purpose of these services is to support teaching personnel in their use of technology on the job. From an introduction to the features of a software application to the development of scripted teaching strategies, concepts are updated in terms of practices and emerging needs.

AQPC

The AQPC (Association québécoise de pédagogie collégiale) promotes the support and development of college educational mastery through gatherings and publications to foster the sharing of experience as well as the adoption of research results, pedagogical innovations and information technology. Among the AQPC’s activities is their annual symposium and the Pédagogie collégiale journal.

ARC

ARC (Association pour la recherche au collégial) works to promote research in college-level establishments. ARC is there to promote research and provide information to college network teachers who might wish to conduct research.

CCDMD

The Collegial Centre for Educational Materials Development (CCDMD) produces computer-based resources and printed documents for teachers and students of the Quebec college network. It has an impressive catalogue of educational materials and participates in a number of highly interesting projects for college teachers, including Netquiz Web, the World of Images collection as well as symposiums produced in tandem with the AQPC to improve teaching skills. The CCDMD works for you and with you!

CDC

The CDC (Centre de documentation collégiale) is the only unique library focusing on college education. The CDC has a mandate to serve francophone and anglophone Cegeps, both public and private, across Quebec. Its collection has been developed specifically to meet the information needs of teachers, professionals, managers, researchers and future teachers of the college network.

Cégep à distance

Cégep à distance is a college dedicated to distance learning. It hosts a diverse student population with a significant student population referred from within the college network. By the very nature of its courses, the Cégep à distance is at the avant-garde of technology. It makes much of the teaching material that it designs available to teachers in the Quebec college network.

DECCLIC

The corporation Plateforme collégiale DECclic hosts and maintains the Moodle environment along with other related services. It also moderates the DECclic community with online help, professional development, and network activities.

IT Rep

The IT Rep/REPTIC Network is a community practice of pedagogical counsellors responsible for the integration of ICTs into Quebec colleges. IT Reps work with teachers at their school to support the pedagogical integration of ICTs. The IT Rep also ensures that the resources of ICT partners have concrete benefits in their setting.

Performa

Performa is a partner dedicated to the professional development and training of ICT savvy teachers. Performa brings together a faculty of the Université de Sherbrooke and 61 college-level institutions. Performa provides access to accredited professional development activities specifically adapted to the needs of college network teachers.

Profweb

Profweb shares inspiring teaching practices in addition to providing articles on educational and digital news from the Quebec college network. Profweb also promotes digital resources related to teaching and learning in colleges and offers a calendar of events. Finally, Profweb offers college teachers a free web hosting environment for their educational projects.

VTÉ

The mission of Vitrine Technologie-Éducation (VTÉ) is to promote and support integration of technology into postsecondary education. The VTÉ is recognized for its technology watch activities, whose results are relayed to the entire network. The VTÉ also disseminates pedagogical resources through means of its rich and comprehensive CERES catalogue—a veritable treasure chest!

Subscribe to our newsletter

Each week, get inspired by innovative educational planning, discover new digital resources coming onto the market and discover the activities in colleges throughout Quebec. Profweb’s newsletter is the only newsletter that tells you what’s happening in technology across the Quebec college network!